Cues of Four Species of Longhorned Beetles (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae)

We tested the hypothesis that contact phermones mediate mate recognition for four species of longhorned beetles, Neoclytus mucronatus mucronatus (F.), Megacyllene caryae (Gahan), Megacyllene robiniae (Forster), and Plec-trodera scalator (F.). All tested males of all four species attempted to mate with females only after contacting them with their antennae. From 66.7 to 80 % of tested males attempted to mate with hexane-extracted dead females treated with 0.1–1.0 female equivalents of conspecific female extracts, confirming that nonpolar compounds on the cuticle of females are essential for mate recogni-tion in all four species. These findings are further evidence of the critical role of contact pheromones in mating systems of longhorned beetles